Embattled former secretary of state Hillary Clinton is not embattled former Pittsburgh mayor Luke Ravenstahl.
Hillary Clinton has spent a long career in public service, and knows her stuff.
Yet Ravenstahl and Clinton assimilated into the same centuries-old political arrangements, and may be of the same species. That top-down, hierarchical “machine”-era politics which the one still pursues, was once pursued by the other.
This blasé politics of privilege, self-perpetualization and clientelism, together with enough arrogance and faith in spinmeisters, tends to produce stubborn questions about patronage and other official privileges.
It turns out, they’re displaying many of the same symptoms: Continue reading